It's interesting the range of usage for these "Pro" printers where some belong to the "professional/production" implied use category with a heavier consistent output and others still used by "professionals" but more intermittent in output. And tales of woe straddle both albeit with a bias to the latter. And whether routines of head cleaning or occasional printing to mitigate against clogs are carried out.

Here's a thought.

The Epsons have settings for auto nozzle checks and cleanings. The Canons have settings that wake up from sleep and jiggle the ink cartridges as part of their routine.

Wouldn't it be worthwhile to have a setting where the printer outputs an actual image held in its firmware, at a settable time while it's in standby?

This standby mode would need to be the default "not-in-use" mode as opposed to "off" and obviously as a user initiated method at day's end and not a "lapse into" or "idle" mode if sitting for a half hour or more.

This standby mode is assumed to have the printhead at rest in its "capped" state to prevent dry-out.

The image is more like a user might cook up for a full colour check; that is, a line of 5mm square blocks for the number of pure cartridges/colours used as well as some mixed colours plus a sentence of text.

The issue of paper type/size to be kept in. The line of spaced 5mm colour blocks would easily fit in an A4 page width and, with the text, only be about 10mm high, though it might depend on what minimum paper is possible. The manuals suggest that roll paper isn't kept in unused printers so unloading expensive art rolls and putting in some plain A4 or even A3 shouldn't be a hassle.

Also, the routine's algorithm would need to operate the printer so that it could print a bunch of these without ejecting the paper. With margins, an A4 or Letter could maybe allow for 28 outputs. I chose that 28 as it might allow the algorithm to do a 4-per-day for a week, 2-per-day for 2 weeks etc, etc depending how you might feel about that type of output as a preventative compared to an actual photo.

Would this be a viable answer to the low-use high-clog-problems that seem to be inherent to printers meant more perhaps for higher volume/time use?

Too much to hope that persons of influence in the printer industry could say, aha great idea and begin an implementation process?

I obviously have no idea about what's involved tech-wise getting this done, firmware updates etc etc. I don't see it as _very_ complicated mind you. And cost, might it add 100usd, if that and even if no more than getting on for 200usd, having that to mitigate clogs is small compared with what we've seen in Eric's thread and others here and elsewhere.

I started with some basic gradients of colors, and then checked the amount of ink consumed of each color after printing it. I then started adding other bands of various colors as well as greys until the ink consumption was somewhat similar for each color. Not perfect, but close enough.

Just to add a note to this thread.You will have to print gradients in both the PK and then the MK mode to fully exercise both the blacks!I have found that my biggest problems with the inks has been when switching from pk to mk and visa versa and when carts go below 1% capacity. I make sure to adjust my work load between running MK on the 7900 and PK on my 9890 for a couple of weeks, an then do a switch on each whether or not I need to.My Philosophy...It is surely better to loose a few ML of ink to a cleaning cycle (at $0.50 a ml) than to have more serious channel drop outs that require more cleanings and possibly a fatal "clog"

NEVER freak out and run any cleaning cycles in rapid succession! Epson specifically warns not to, (especially power cleans). I have become more and more convinced that doing this is what has killed many heads!David

There is also this approach to print each channel at 100% using QuadToneRIP and to schedule it automatically (but there is the question of leaving a roll of paper in the printer for extended period of time).

There is also this approach to print each channel at 100% using QuadToneRIP and to schedule it automatically (but there is the question of leaving a roll of paper in the printer for extended period of time).

For my 7900 I bought the cheapest 17" roll of photo paper I could find and leave that in the printer during periods of non-use, with regular test patterns printed by Harvey Head Cleaner.

NEVER freak out and run any cleaning cycles in rapid succession! Epson specifically warns not to, (especially power cleans). I have become more and more convinced that doing this is what has killed many heads!

So if you have a clog and a 1 pair cleaning doesn't clear it, how long should you wait before trying it again?

If set for auto check and cleanings the printer itself will (safely ?) do a max of 3 pair cleans or regular full cleans in succession and if it doesn't clear you will get a "failed to clean notice" on the LCD.First try another nozzle check and if it hasn't cleared at that stage it is recommended to turn it off and allow the printer to sit overnight!I would never run more than one power clean at at time (pair or full), without first either doing some prints in between and test pattern again to keep ink flowing and if not turning the printer off for an overnighter.A large portion or complete channel dropping out is usually an indication of ink starvation I usually experience this problem only when the carts are at a 1% level.I surmise that the system can no longer pressurize the carts enough to supply adequate ink in the given channel, or there is air being drawn into the channel from the cart seal. I don't hesitate to remove the offending cart at that juncture and replace it with a fresh cart which has always cleared things up and brought back the channel. Another culprit is replacing 1% low carts in order to do a manual cleaning when the machine says "you can put the old carts back in after a cleaning" if you don't allow for auto cleans.In this case you may see drop outs beacuse you have pulled the carts and replaced them twice which may allow air into the lines in the process and the air bubbles need to work their way out. I'd much rather throw away the few $ of remaining ink than risk nozzle failure!!! My printing charges allow for this and some occasional wasted paper.(operating costs).I also think that people who regularly remove their carts to shake them up are doing themselves a disservice and run the risk of damaging the cart seals which will introduce air in the lines, and eventually drop outs and possible nozzle damage.Epson says so in the manual!The very act of turning the printer on pressurizes the ink bags in the carts and is enough to mix up the settled pigment in the bags unless of course the printer has not been used for a long period of time, but that's a whole other thread.....

Multiple power cleans are especially dangerous as they can cause air to be drawn backward into the nozzle chambers and that's when your real problems start to occur. I seriously believe that air in the lines or nozzles are the main culprit for head failures, and they can come from bad seals on the carts, bad dampers, or air drawn in reverse into the nozzles from successive cleanings (especially power cleans), and not allowing the printer to settle out so to speak. There are some situations where you will get a 'failed to clean' notice and the nozzle check is fine, so I just go ahead and print and there is 'usually' no problem.I belive that sometimes the AID system somehow is one step behind the actual state of the nozzles when it does an error report and causes an erroneous reading depending on how you have the auto clean system set up in your preferances.David